The more than 13,000 nonunionized managers who work for state government will be getting the 2.25 percent raise on April 1 that their unionized colleagues will receive, according to a spokesman for Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration.

View full sizeNon-unionized state employees will receive the 2.25 percent raise that union employees will be receiving in April, according to a spokesman for Gov. Tom Corbett's administration.The Patriot-News/file

The cost of that raise in its first year is about $19.6 million, said spokesman Dan Egan.

Corbett is committed to prospectively awarding the managers the same raises that were negotiated as part of contracts with the unions representing state employees, Budget Secretary Charles Zogby told the editorial board of Pennlive/The Patriot-News last week.

Aside from the April 1 raise, that also means the non-unionized workers will receive a 0.5 percent raise in July and another in January as well as another 2.25 percent raise in April 2014, just like their unionized colleagues.

Nonunionized employees from different state agencies who have contacted Pennlive said they have been unable to get a straight answer to the question about future raises from their agency’s human resources officers.

Corbett and Zogby offered up the plan for future state employee raises when asked about the union/nonunion pay disparity that has its roots in former Gov. Ed Rendell’s decision to order a managers’ pay freeze five years ago for cost-saving reasons during the Great Recession.

But while nonunionized employees' pay was frozen, union employees continued to receive the raises their contract provided. That created a disparity that leaves 25 percent of nonunion managers with at least one union employee working under them making more money than they do, according to an administration document.

Corbett has indicated his awareness of the disparity issue and said savings achieved from pension reforms could be directed to helping to address the problem.

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